“There’s something wrong with the new car,” I said to my husband over the phone. “It keeps pinging at me.”“Is your seatbelt on? Are you backing up? Did you charge it? Is the charge door open?” he fired questions at me like he was taking target practice at a duck gallery.“Um, yes, no, yes, no?” I responded as the car pinged again.

It’s not a remake or a sequel or a prequel to the “Terminator” films that have come before it. Rather, it’s kind of a reinvention of the first two movies, but with all sorts of new futures and pasts. There will no doubt be “Terminator” purists who...